The Greater Elgin Family Care Center, which provides medical services to Medicaid, low-income and uninsured patients in the Elgin area, is making some moves.
The agency’s Summit Health Center is merging with its Slade Health Center, both in Elgin, and moving into new Elgin offices at 373 Summit St. The new building, designed for a medical practice, has 22 exam rooms, lab-testing areas and space for staff, said Bob Tanner, president and CEO of Greater Elgin Family Care.
Summit’s old location at 370 Summit St. will become the Greater Elgin Family’s new administrative offices, Tanner said. The building is being remodeled to accommodate the new use, he said.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Summit/Slade clinic’s new location — which is already open — is set for 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. July 12.
Greater Elgin Family, which provides general medicine, ob/gyn, optometrist and other health care services, also has clinics in towns in Cook, Kane, McHenry and DeKalb counties, including Hanover Park, Streamwood and Wheeling.
The agency’s administrative offices had been in the same space as the Slade Health Center on the old Sherman Hospital campus at Slade and Center streets. “We signed a multiyear lease and expected to be there forever,” Tanner said.
Things changed, however, when the hospital terminated the agreement in order to sell the building, he said.
The Greater Elgin Family Care Center provides health care services for 14 percent of the Elgin’s population, Tanner said. “In 2017, 13,659 residents of the city of Elgin came to us for care,” he said.
When combined with the facilities in towns outside of Elgin, “last year 47,000 people from from 350 ZIP codes had 158,000 appointments with us last year,” Tanner said.
Of those clients, 83 percent live in poverty, he said.
In addition to the two adjacent Summit Street buildings, Greater Elgin Family Care also operates out of the former VA clinic at 450 Dundee Ave. As a result, the agency is operating out of three buildings spanning three blocks all adjacent to each another.